January 22, 2010

Alibaba.com has grown to a $15bn trading platform in 10 years

“If you look at the US, we have 1.9 million users, but more than 96% of them register as buyers only. ­Compare that with the UK where 19% have ­registered as buyers and sellers,” he says.

During its 10 years, Alibaba has remained largely unknown to the British public, something the company wants to change. An advertising splurge last year followed the introduction of its AliPay facility to the UK, which attempts to rid its website of fraud (it already has more than 150 million users in China). The introduction of factory inspections next year is designed to go a stage further.